


Laughter Lines

by Azure (Fancy_Ravenclaw)



Category: Phandom/The Fantastic Foursome (YouTube RPF)
Genre: M/M, Song Lyrics
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-08-20
Updated: 2017-08-20
Packaged: 2018-12-17 21:32:37
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,040
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11860083
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Fancy_Ravenclaw/pseuds/Azure
Summary: Drabble based off Laughter Lines by Bastille. Decades into the future, Dan reminisces about the good days he had with Phil.





	Laughter Lines

**You took me to your favourite place on Earth  
** **To see the tree they cut down ten years from your birth  
** **Our fingers traced in circles round its history**  
**We brushed our hands right back in time through centuries.**

~~

It seemed so fitting now to reminisce about, as Dan sat in a chair by Phil’s bed, a picture book spread across his lap. They’d spent a few minutes looking at the pictures together, but these days Phil couldn’t seem to stay awake for much longer than fifteen minutes at a time. Sometimes he couldn’t even speak. His wrinkled hands would slowly move to trace the lines in the photographs and he’d cry. And Dan would try to console him even though he didn’t know what words to say and even if he had, he wouldn’t be able to form them anyway.

There was one picture of just the tree stump. It was the largest image in the book, nearly taking up an entire page. Phil cried about the ones where the both of them were standing together, arms around each other and looking bright and happy. Young and full of life.  
Dan constantly found himself going back to that picture of the tree and for some reason that was the one that had an iron grip on his heart and refused to let him go. He’d thought that maybe it was because the hours they’d spent with that tree were so dear to him, or maybe he was just getting old and was losing control of his feelings.

~~

**As you held me down, you said:**

**"I'll see you in the future when we're older**  
**And we are full of stories to be told  
** **Cross my heart and hope to die**  
**I'll see you with your laughter lines"**  
**Changes on our hands and on our faces, oh, oh**  
**Memories are mapped out by the lines we'll trace**

~~

They’d both aged well, if Dan did say so himself. They’d gotten more wrinkles and less hair over the years, but Dan never caught himself looking at Phil and wishing he looked differently. He looked well. He always had.

Dan got to learn new details about his body, like the scar on his toe where he dropped a plate when their daughter had told them she was pregnant. The scar lines on his upper arm from when they’d gone on vacation to Italy and Phil had scratched too hard at his mosquito bites and left permanent marks.  
But he also saw new details appear that he’d rather not think about. Phil’s veins had become more visible and popped up in his ankles and legs, the first indication that he was truly getting older that they could not deny. Or the scar on his hip where he’d had hip replacement surgery after he’d fallen down a small set of stairs because his own hip just gave out under him.

But Dan could easily put all those negative signs of getting old out of his head, because Phil had gotten laughter lines by his eyes. The little crows’ feet that everyone dreaded getting and Phil got them, but they had made Dan fall in love with him all over again. He couldn’t image anyone disliking a physical sign that someone had lived a good and happy life.

~~

**As you held me down you said:**

**"I'll see you in the future when we're older**  
**And we are full of stories to be told**  
**Cross my heart and hope to die**  
**I'll see you with your laughter lines"**  


~~

Phil squeezed Dan’s hand before he even opened his eyes.  
After all these years, they didn’t just love each other, they were still in love. Dan had dreaded this part of their relationship. He’d dreaded it but for some weird reason he’d also looked forward to it.

From the moment they got together to this very day, he’d said he wanted to grow old with Phil. And he did. But no one ever thought about what would happen after.  
They were old now. Their goals had been reached. Dan had accomplished what he had wanted to do so bad, and now that he had gotten there, he was unsure of how to proceed. Most of all, he figured that he should be happy that they had grown old together, but he also thought that this meant it would be over soon. They’d done what they had set out to do, and now that it was over, there was nothing left to reach for.  
Phil smiled at him and Dan smiled back.

~~

 **Ashen faces in cold breeze**  
**ashen faces in cold breeze**  
**Armed with stories you will leave**  
**Oh armed with stories you will leave**  


~~

They looked through pictures of their adult life, family holidays and their children’s milestones. Phil didn’t speak, but Dan knew not to turn the pages too fast, as his husband wanted to reach out and touch each one. It was as if he was pouring all the love he had left in him into the people in the photograph, and Dan felt it reach him each time.  
The speechless moments came more and more often. A few days before, a doctor had gently told Dan that it may be time to start preparing for the worst, but Dan wasn’t so sure if it really was the worst. Maybe it was just the next.

~~

 **I'll see you in the future when we're older**  
**And we are full of stories to be told**

 **Cross my heart and hope to die I'll see you with your laughter lines**  
**I'll see you in the future when we're old**  
**I'll see you in the future when we're old**  


~~

Their time was almost up.

Dan knew that Phil knew it too, and that he was saying goodbye to their loved ones by giving them his all through his fingers on the shiny pages of the photo album.

As they reached the end of the book and started it over, they came across the picture of the tree stump again on the second page. Dan knew now why it called to him. The old tree that had died after living through so much over the centuries of its life reminded him of Phil.

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading!! If there's anything you'd like me to write, you can leave a comment or send me a message on my [Tumblr here](http://daniactuallysnuffledthatpopcorn.tumblr.com).


End file.
